Thousands of hospital workers and others at a London rally ons Apr were told by Alan risner,leader drEnc National Union of Public Employees, that if the hospital workers were to win "it will be because they have une support or omer workers and orner unions, wno are in a better position to take industrial action". Speaking with Fisher was Jack Jones of the Transport and General Workers Union, who declared that, "we will continue this fight until we win". But Jones remained silent about giving any practical support along the lines suggested by Fisher.
Nevertheless workers in various industries all over Britain have been taking action in support of the hospital workers. Only last week, on 5 April, 300 workers at Imperial College in London struck for half a day in solidarity with the hospital workers' struggle against the Pay Laws.
Again, at Preston on Monday, Health Minister Sir Keith Joseph arrived for a meeting at the City Hall only to find that the porters and catering staff, all NUPE members, were blacking all services in solidarity with the hospital workers. Sir Keith had been diverted to rreston from manchester. where s angry hospital workers who were waiting for him subsequently occupied the offices of the Regional Hospital Board.
In Basingstoke, Esso and British Oxygen workers refused to deliver supplies to the hospitals unless management withdrew scab labour. On Teesside there has been a two-hour strike of engineering, shipyard and steer workers.
The central thread running through the solidarity activities has been the big demonstrations held in most of the principal towns. Called by the trades councils. these have received support from miners, engineers, car workers and others. The initiative for these demon strations came from the TUC, but they were posed simply as a means of putting pressure on the Government to settle the dispute as a "special case". Many workers, however, instinctively feel that protest actions of this sort are not enough, and can only have meaning if they are part of a movement to build up a national campaign to fight the Pay Laws. Actions such as those at Basingstoke and Preston are important because they shift the focus away from protest and arguments about "special cases and give practical aid to winning the claim, which is the real way to fight the pay laws.
This contrasts vividly with the passivity of the left leaders, and shows the need for local trade unionists to come together to fight against the Government by supporting and extending all struggles. This is the